Dear Dot,

I agree with you that the correct way to tag this would be 
<del><gap/></del> (and this was concluded in a discussion on the MS-SIG 
list a year or so ago, I think).

One argument is, as you say, that in the case of erasure and replacement 
text, the <subst> element doesn't (and shouldn't) allow <gap/>.

<del><gap/></del> doesn't of course mean that someone has deleted a gap, 
(any more than <name><gap/></name> would mean that someone's name was a 
gap) it means that some text has been erased, but that we are not able 
to transcribe that text because it is illegible. In other words, the 
<del> and the <gap/> are encoding different classes of information: 
<del> is an action that has been taken by the original scribe (or a 
later hand) and contributes to the state of the text we have; <gap/> is 
an admission by the modern editor that she cannot read the text. I'd 
argue that it's best not to confuse the two things.

Anyway, I think the wording of the passage in the Guidelines you cite 
should be modified. The note on <del> is correct.

Best,

Gabby

Dot Porter a écrit :
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I'm looking at how to encode deleted text that is not legible (in this
> case, because the overstrike has obliterated it completely).
> 
> In the "Note" section of the index entry for <del>, I read:
> 
> The text deleted must be at least partially legible, in order for the
> encoder to be able to transcribe it. *Illegible text within a deletion
> may be marked using the gap tag to signal that text is present but has
> not been transcribed. Attributes on the gap  element may be used to
> indicate how much text is omitted, the reason for omitting it, etc.*
> 
> Which means I could do something like:
> 
> <del rend="overstrike"><gap reason="illegible"/></del>
> 
> However, in section 3.4 of the Guidelines I read:
> 
> *The del element should not be used where the deletion is such that
> material cannot be read with confidence, or read at all, or where the
> material has been omitted by the transcriber or editor for some other
> reason.* ... *Where material has been omitted by the transcriber or
> editor, this may be indicated by use of the gap element.*
> 
> I'm confused. Perhaps the "Note" is not clear, and does not in fact
> mean that <gap> may be used inside <del>? Could be that "illegible
> text *within a deletion*" is what is throwing me off.
> 
> I'd like to use <subst> to indicate that an addition is substituting
> for a deletion, so I can't really use <gap> on its own, to indicate
> the deletion (<gap> is apparently not allowed in <subst>). So
> <del><gap/></del> would be ideal, if it is allowed.
> 
> (Although to be pedantic about it: of course "deleting a gap" doesn't
> really make sense. But I need some way to indicate that I can't read
> the text that is deleted, and <gap/> seems to be the tag.)
> 
> Any suggestions or thoughts? Is there something simple that I'm overlooking?
> 
> Dot

-- 
Dr Gabriel BODARD
(Epigrapher & Digital Classicist)

Centre for Computing in the Humanities
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